Well, it took longer than I would have liked, but... I would like to think I have an excuse. Between moving, finals, and dealing with family crap... no I have nothing. I haven't been completely lazy; I've been pounding out plot stuff, so I know have three distinctive story arcs: Nadir, Eclipse, and Zenith. I've got an outline for the entire first arc, Nadir, and I've been working on details for the second arc, Eclipse, so it should flow more smoothly, and I've been re-studying all of Cardcaptor Sakura with a more analytical and skeptical eye, though most of the skeptism mostly comes from recent Tsubasa plot/timeline/character twists, admitedly, but I did notice some interesting things, and I've been, well, 'researching' another, non-CLAMP-related series I hope will be usable in the second and third arcs. XD Nadir dictionary definition now up on the first chapter, if anyone wants to take a look. Only a day late. XD Anyway, I hope this chapter has been worth the wait for whoever's been waiting for it; I can now honestly promise to keep a better schedual from now on!

Even Touya was amazed with how his life seemed to be turning out. Aside from regular study sessions and after school activities with Yuki, it soon became tradition to give Yuki a ride to school every morning on the back of his bike after a rather irritating escapade during the sports fest concerning a ladder and an awkwardly placed bag of marbles. Though Yuki had tried many times to convince him no permanent damage had been done, he didn't protest the free ride and had dropped the subject within a week, instead greeting Touya every morning at the corner where their streets met with a wave and a cheery greeting.

Nothing else of great importance happened for several weeks, not counting the fact that Sakura's slightly creepy friend, Daidouji Tomoyo, had tried to include Yuki and himself in her strange costume fetish for a while. The worst had been when Yuki had been spending the weekend with them after the 'sports fest incident' (Sure Yuki was technically fine, but his grandparents were still gone and Touya had stubbornly insisted Yuki was not to be by himself for extended periods of time, even if he had to drag out the spare futon on his own, which he had ended up doing anyway even though both Yuki and his dad had offered to help), and the Daidouji child had realized they hadn't brought any of Yuki's clothes with him other than his gym uniform. She had disappeared from their house with an overly delighted smile and what Touya swore to be an evil cackle, only to reappear a few hours later with several bodyguards and a full wardrobe in tow.

As soon as she walked in and found Yuki still in his gym uniform (Touya had tried three times to offer him some sweats, but the words always came out wrong and twice it sounded like he was demanding Yuki to strip and the third time like something straight out of a porno, so he had finally given up. Luckily, Yukito had figured out his good intentions and had just laughed at him until he finally brought out some cake.), Tomoyo had let out a gleeful squeal and dragged the silver haired boy upstairs despite Touya's best protests. Where the girl had gotten so many rabbit and moon themed clothes that fit Yuki so quickly, Touya didn't really want to think about too much, and he had been quick to try to put a stop to it, only to be very happily reminded that unless Yuki went home there weren't many alternatives. Nevertheless, as soon as the girl had left he had awkwardly presented his friend with several pairs of his smaller sweats, and he had noticed with no small amount of pride (and maybe even something else Touya hadn't quite defined yet) that Yuki had changed as soon as he had been given the opportunity. Still, he had the feeling that even though he had done his best to hide the 'collection' in the deepest, darkest corner of his attic, Yuki had still managed to keep a pair of pajamas covered in bunnies that he had been particularly fond of. In fact, actually, he was quite sure that over time he had seen Yukito wear those pajamas several times, but had somehow managed to convince himself to tactfully avoid the subject every time he walked in on his friend like that.

Other than the occasional oddity that just came with living, it wasn't until about the first week into November that he started noticing something odd. Yukito would suddenly come up to him out of nowhere with a worried expression to ask something along the lines of "Is To-ya okay?" or "Something is wrong to To-ya?" or worst of all, "Does To-ya not want to talk to Yuki about something?", and now, while Yuki had already become a constant in his daily routine life, suddenly there was barely a moment without him. Logically, Touya knew he should be kind of irritated by now, and yet Yuki's odd behavior only worried him. Something had to be making his friend act so strangely, and he was determined to find out what. So the next time Yukito had asked him if something was wrong he had shot the question back at his friend maturely. Yuki had looked surprised for a moment or two before he had broken into one of the warmest smiles anyone had ever directed at Touya.

"That's so similar to To-ya," he smiled. "Yuki just wants To-ya to know Yuki can listen if he needs to talk about some subject thing."

And then he promptly changed the subject before Touya could ask him why his language skills had seemingly deteriorated past the point of pronouns and what he had heard through the rumor mill.

For all his logic and reasoning skills, Touya could not figure out what was causing Yuki to behave like that, and Yuki would just act as though he didn't understand Japanese whenever he tried to bring it up, ("To-ya needed to work on his English," he would say sweetly.) so Touya started keeping a journal of everything that happened. Ignoring the curious whisperings of his classmates ("Has Kinomoto-kun taken up stalking?" he was sure he heard one girl ask her friend.), because Yuki was quick to put a stop to it ("To-ya has just taken up keeping a diary for a while," he had informed them cheerfully, and really, was that honestly any better?), Touya had first started by listing everyone Yukito talked to before he asked if something was wrong. After about a week and a half of not finding any particular pattern, Touya had decided to try something else and started listing all the people he talked to first, but the list had been so painfully covered in mainly nothing but bad doodles of snow bunnies he had been forced to give that up within a single school day and had begun listing anything even remotely influential.

Even paying almost excruciating attention to detail, it still took an overly dedicated spirit haunting the restaurant he was currently employed at for three weeks before he finally made the connection. Never the less, the problem still remained; how did you tell your semi-recently met friend you were not just staring off into the abyss of nothingness but could actually see and communicate with spirits? He thought about it long and hard, and eventually decided that while he would have liked to ignore the entire subject until much, much later, Yuki was genuinely worried over something this was causing and that was enough to merit a serious discussion.

"Yuki can we stop at the park on the way home?" he asked, finally mustering up the courage on the walk home from school one day. "I need to talk to you about something."

Yukito's face like up brilliantly before breaking out into the most enthusiastic combination giggling and nodding fit Touya had ever seen, to the point that he actually worried about the well being of his friends' neck. The walk to the park wasn't long, and Yuki tried several times to make small talk, but each attempt at friendliness was just met with a curt nod of the head and a small noise of acknowledgement. Not that he was trying to be rude to his friend, but most of his attention was focused on currently attempting to think of the best possible way to start the conversation he had in mind. As bad possibility after worse possibility rushed through his mind, Touya almost walked right past the very spot he had suggested and had to backtrack a few steps to join Yukito on the swing set.

They were both silent for a long time as Touya struggled to put together a way to begin, and several times it looked as though Yuki wanted to say something before deciding against it for whatever reason, finally giving up trying to start a conversation entirely and just started swinging dejectedly. Touya was suddenly very glad the park was largely empty.

"Yuki," he said after a while. "You know how sometimes I kind of stare off at nothing for no real reason?"

Yukito had even walked out of class one day to find To-ya talking to himself once or twice. He skidded to a stop and nodded at Touya earnestly.

"Well, I'm not." When Yuki looked confused he cleared his throat and tried again. "Staring at nothing. I'm not just staring at nothing."

Yuki nodded up at him expectantly, and Touya realized that beating around the bush would get him nowhere fast. He was quickly learning how little of an understanding Yuki had when it came to the meaning and usage of the word 'subtle,' so he tried again.

"Do you believe in ghosts, Yuki?" he sighed.

Surprisingly, Yuki laughed. "Don't know," he smiled. "Yuki has never personally seen one, but that does not mean they do not exist. There must be more to death than nothing, so there could be, yes. Why does To-ya ask?"

Well, at least he wasn't completely closed to the idea.

"I can see them, Yuki. Ghosts, spirits…" He frowned when his friend didn't respond, stumbling on clumsily. "My mother could see them too, but not a lot of other people can. That's why our classmates always say I'm so weird, but I swear I'm not just talking to myself, but to them."

When he finally worked up the courage to look at his friend, Yukito was staring at the ground thoughtfully, apparently considering his words deeply. Touya chewed on his lip nervously, suddenly very worried about bringing this up.

"Yuki, I'm not making this up," he tried one last time. "You believe me, right Yuki?"

Yukito blinked up at him in surprise. "Of course Yuki believes To-ya!" he said, and Touya barely suppressed a twitch at Yuki using his own nickname in a sentence. "Why should Yuki not believe To-ya? To-ya never lied before, so why would To-ya start now? Yuki was just thinking…"

Touya hadn't been aware of how nervous he had become while waiting for his friend to speak until all the tension left him in one big rush. "Don't talk in the third person," he said. When Yuki looked confused he elaborated, "Don't say 'Yuki' to refer to yourself. Just say 'I.' What were you thinking about?"

Yukito kicked his swing off the ground again, nodding. "All the times To-ya was being funny, To-ya was just helping someone dead?"

"I suppose you could say it like that, yeah," he said, frowning a bit. "Why?"

"I am so relieved!" Yuki beamed up at him, laughing a bit when Touya nodded in approval at his proper pronoun usage. They would work on the whole 'To-ya' use later. "I was really worried To-ya was tired of me and was wanting to think of a nice was to tell me to leave!"

It was Touya's turn to be surprised this time. "Why the hell would you think that?" he blurted.

Yuki flushed, shuffling his feet in embarrassment, but only after properly reprimanding Touya ("You should not make curses, To-ya," he scolded softly. "Curses will always come back to get you." Touya nodded but had to respond with a gentle, "Different kind of curse, Yuki.").

"I had just.. talked with classmates, and they said To-ya never liked to spend a lot of time with people before…" Yukito said, fidgeting a bit. "And so Yuki thought maybe To-ya was just nice to Yuki because Yuki was new and had a funny accent…"

Touya scoffed, reaching over and ruffling his friend's hair affectionately. "Don't be stupid, Yuki," he said, deciding to ignore the pronoun slip for now. "You should know I'm not like that. I should have told you what was going on sooner, but everyone else that I've told before either thought I was crazy or just making it up to get them to leave."

"Then… Both of us were just being silly, huh?" Yukito laughed. "Let us promise not to keep any more silly secrets, okay?"

"Pinky promise," Touya said, feeling admittedly childish as he held out his hand.

"Pinky promise?" Yuki repeated, looking confused.

"It's an old tradition; there's supposed to be a vein in your pinky finger that goes straight to your heart," Touya explained. "So it's supposed to be the most unbreakable of promises, because it's connected right to your heart. Sakura and her friends use it all the time."

"Oh, I understand," Yuki beamed, reaching over from his swing to intertwine their little fingers together. "This must be like that 'blood brothers' ritual in America, right? Well, we can make a pinky promise then."

Smoothly ignoring the fact that he had absolutely no idea what Yuki was talking about (something he was gradually getting better at as time went by) and answered with a stiff nod of his head. "Pinky promise," he agreed, bobbing their joined hands up and down once as his mother had done with him as a child. "No more stupid secrets."

And he meant it.

Time passed almost alarmingly fast, and before he knew it, he was already picking Yuki up for school one morning in the first week of December. How the year had gone by so quickly was beyond him, Touya mused to himself as he slowed his bike to a halt after being waved down by his overly-enthusiastic friend.

"Good morning, To-ya!" Yuki cooed, hoping on behind him and balancing on the wheel pegs, gripping his shoulder for support.

"You sure are cheerful today," Touya commented, sighing when Yuki laughed at him. "More so than usual, I mean."

"I am!" his friend gushed, struggling to pull something out of his school bag with one hand without loosing his balance ("Careful Yuki," Touya had chided gently. "You're gonna fall if you're not careful."), before coming up with a slightly abused piece of paper and trying to put it in front of Touya's face for him to read. "My grandparents sent me a letter!"

"I need to see so we don't run into anything," he reminded his friend gently. "I'll read it later, if you want. What'd they say?"

"Right, sorry." Yuki pulled the letter back and clutching it to his chest tightly, leaning his head against Touya's shoulder with a sigh of contentment. Touya felt his face flush hotly and had to convince himself he was focusing on his driving. "They explained to me about birthdays, and they told me when my birthday is. And guess what! They said they were going to come home for my birthday! A day or so late, truly, but still!"

Touya frowned, having to remind himself once more how very little Yukito truly knew about normal life. "So when's your birthday?"

"December twenty-fifth; this month!"

There was a brief pause as Touya blinked and Yuki gushed pure gooey light from over his shoulder, then, "… Yuki that's Christmas."

"… What's a Christmas?"

"Your grandparents didn't tell you about Christmas?"

"Maybe they don't have Christmas in England?"

"Actually I think Christmas comes from England."

"Oh."

"Well, it's a major holiday in winter," he said. "I'll loan you a book on it."

"Okay."

"… How old are you turning?" Touya tried lamely after a moments beat.

"They said I was turning sixteen," Yuki grinned.

"Your grandparents said that?"

"Yes, in the letter."

"Oh."

"How old is To-ya?"

"Sixteen. I turn seventeen February twenty-ninth." He would explain what a leap year was later.

"So, that means that for about two months Yuki will be the same age as To-ya!" Yuki laughed, humming his contentment into the back of Touya's shoulder.

"So your grandparents are really coming here for your birthday?"

"That's right. They're going to try for the day after, but said it would probably be two days."

"I'd imagine it'd be hard to get a plane on Christmas, so I guess that's understandable."

"Do people travel a lot then?"

"No. But hardly any planes are going out either, I guess. How long are they staying?"

"I don't know. They didn't say."

"Well, they better stay long enough to visit the house their grandson is spending so much time at. I'm sure Sakura and Dad'll be thrilled to meet them."

He could practically feel Yuki's smile through his school uniform. "So will I."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence for the rest of the trip to school, each in their own thoughts, and Touya realized he had absolutely no idea what to get for Yukito.

As promised, Touya had given his friend an intimidating stack of his little sisters' Christmas books after school. As tempting as it had been to watch Yukito bury himself in a mountain of children's books, he had work after supper and didn't think his classmate could carry the mass of books home by himself and had walked him home early. The next day Yuki had shown up to school jabbering excitedly about all the different Christmas traditions animatedly, which he endured with a pained silence, just as he endured the tiny class representative chatting eagerly to the class about the upcoming culture fest. He didn't even hear what theme they eventually decided on (An animal-themed café? Is that was they suggested?), because he was so lost in his own thoughts.

He had a very bad feeling about something - Christmas? Yuki's grandparents coming? The culture fest? - but he couldn't tell what was causing it, and so he brooded and stewed in his thoughts uselessly in his seat.

Then again, maybe he was just worried about the fact that he had no idea what to get Yuki for Christmas.

Later that week as he was returning from an errand for his father, Touya happened across one of the weirdest places he had never noticed before. He was in one the more traditional neighborhoods on the other side of town from where he lived when he stumbled across one of the oddest houses he had ever seen. It was on a small, narrow lot with a brown wooden fence stretching around the front, an elaborate crescent moon resting on top of the front gate.

The house itself was strange, with a deep, traditionally slanted roof and darkly painted wood with sliding doors grandly decorated with designs and paint. The mere aura of the place was what caused him to stop and stare, however, though it seemed otherwise empty.

He wouldn't touch it, though; even the thought of brushing up against that dark fence made him uneasy, so he refused to move any closer and just stared at the house in an angrily confused manner.

Touya wasn't sure how long he stood there glaring at the empty lot, but suddenly the front door was sliding open and two creepy little girls were skipping out into the yard - one with long blue hair and the other in pink - doing some strange dance and singing some strange song ("Watanuki is in love, Watanuki is in love!" they chorused, and Touya was sure he heard some form of angry screaming from inside the house) for nearly a full minuet before finally noticing Touya's existence just outside the fence.

"Oh, a customer!" they chorused together, dancing up to the fence gate hand-in-hand. "Would you like to come inside to meet the mistress?"

"Customer?" Touya frowned. Mistress? The hell? Had he somehow stumbled into a harem or something?

"But of course!" the one on the right chirped.

"This is a shop!" the other said.

"A shop?" This really wasn't making him feel any better, and he took another step backwards warily.

"A wish granting shop!" they chorused together again, hovering just behind the gate.

"The mistress grants wishes!" the blue-haired one sang.

"Any wish you can have!" the pink on echoed.

Touya had always been a skeptic, and that trait was shining through marvelously now. "Of course," he copied dryly, crossing his arms defensively. "Any wish possible. I suppose there's no magical catch to this either."

"Oh no catch," one girl grinning.

"But it's not free," the other girl smiled.

"For every wish granted," they sang together, linking hands tightly and giving him what he thought was one of the most evil smiles he had ever seen. "There is a price of equal value to be paid."

"Che, I knew it."

"So would you like to come inside and meet our mistress?"

"No, I'll pass," he said, turning away. No way was he walking inside some freaking whore house.

"Oh?" The girls looked as though they would have gladly dragged him inside, but for some reason they lingered just inside the gate as they thought this over for a minuet or two before seeming to reach the same conclusion at exactly the same moment. "If the customer will not come inside, then we will bring the mistress out!"

And before he could protest they had squealed their approval of the plan and bounded back inside the strange shop/house. Logic and reason told him he should leave - he really didn't want to meet with the master hooker - but something about the stupid lot kept him from leaving. He couldn't have stood there too long, only one couple walked by, and soon the front door to the house was sliding open again and out walked the absolutely most indescribable woman Touya had ever seen.

She was long and thin with lengthy black hair pulled up in an elaborate bun, her skin-tight dress doing very little to cover her very prominent curves and deathly white skin, the extravagant air about her doing nothing to tone down her very wicked smile. For a moment when she locked her eyes on him, he had a fleeting screech of pure panic that rushed down his neck painfully - an ohshitqueenwhore kind of feeling - but the way she moved herself was much too regal, too royal, to ever even be clumped in the same dictionary as 'whore'.

"Ah, who is this?" she purred, gliding over to him with a dangerous glint in her eye and a scary twitch to her smile. "What's this about refusing to come into my lovely shop? Are you one of those stubborn trouble makers, by any chance?"

For a moment or two all Touya was able to do was gape at her stupidly - he'd never seen so many curves on a woman before, especially not so indecently covered! - and when he was finally able to think again he took several rapid steps backwards with his hands up in front of him defensively.

"Listen lady," he said quickly, deeply wishing she didn't lean her top half over the fence to talk to him better, "I'm sorry for any confusion here, but I honestly have no idea what any of you are talking about."

"Oh? Did you not listen to Maru and Moro?"

"Maru and… Moro."

"That's right."

"As in…"

"Maru-dashi and Moro-dashi, yes. Cute, isn't it?"

"No. It's really not."

"Ah well," she shrugged, and he sorely wished she hadn't. "You still caught on quicker than my worker did, you pervert. So, did you not listen to them or are you just too stupid to understand?"

Touya bristled angrily, crossing his arms characteristically. "I heard them," he growled.

"Oh, so it's the second option then," the woman mused, twirling her elegant pipe around her thin fingers bemusedly, waving off his protests before he could truly say anything in his defense. "This is a shop that grants wishes, if the proper price is paid."

"See, there's the problem," he said, turning around to start walking away. "I don't carry any money on me. And, I don't have any wishes."

"You're lying."

"Excuse me?" He was facing her again now.

"You're lying, though whether it's just to me, or you're going far enough to lie to yourself is the question," she said, letting out a puff of sweet-smelling smoke, never once breaking her gaze away from his. "You see, no one can find my shop unless they have a wish. The fact that you are here at all is a sign of hitsuzen at work. Also," she smiled again, straightening up to her regal pose once more, and he wondered why her eyes had to be blood red. "My shop doesn't deal in money. Now, are you coming in or do I have to figure out your wish from over here?"

They stared at each other solemnly for several long minuets, neither backing down or wavering in their resolve, before he finally nodded stiffly.

"I'm not going in," he said finally.

"Fine then," she laughed. "Maybe you won't need to enter yet, anyway. You look like you're in high school… Tell me; has your class gotten any foreign exchange students lately, by any chance?"

Touya stiffened visibly, giving her a brief, jerky nod.

The woman smiled again, but this time it wasn't quite as demonic or bloodthirsty to look at. "I see…" She seemed to be thinking about something deeply for a moment before turning her attention back to him, the deadly smirk returning. "Let me guess: you need to find a Christmas present for that special someone, right?"

"Excuse me?"

"I was right, wasn't I?" the woman squealed, clapping her hands together happily. "After all, you look like the type to have troubles Christmas shopping."

"What? No!"

"Of course, of course. Maru, Moro, come here!"

And before he could even start to protest, those horrid little girls were dancing out into the yard again.

"Watanuki is still busy right now, so I need you to fetch something from the storehouse," the dark-haired woman said, bending down to whisper in their ears exactly what she wanted. They nodded enthusiastically before bounding off with not-quite-sane giggles as the woman straightened up and returned her gaze to him with a wicked smile. "What did you say your name was again?"

Touya frowned. "I didn't."

"Would you care to share?"

He really didn't want to, but for some reason… "Kinomoto Touya."

She nodded. "And the person receiving this gift?"

That was just too much. "I'm not giving you that persons' name!"

"I'm just asking," she said, raising an elegant eyebrow in his general direction. "I'm not even writing it down. Besides, I envy anyone who can find a person just by their name."

It was true; it was nearly impossible to track someone down from just their name without going directly to the government. But still, this woman…

"Tsukishiro Yukito," he ground out finally through gritted teeth.

She seemed a little surprised for a moment before her face fell back into an impassive expression. "Tsukishiro… What kanji do you use for this?"

"I'm not spelling it out for you!"

"Of course," she smiled. By then, those two girls came running back from inside the depths of the shop, carrying a lumpy brown paper sack between them. The woman -witch?- smiled, taking the bag from the girls and turning back to face Touya with a grin. "I think this will make the perfect present for the person you have in mind right now."

Touya frowned. "What is it?"

The witches' smile grew. "To find out, you have to accept our deal," she cooed. "Do you accept?"

"What do you want from me?" he scowled. "You said something about payment earlier, so what do you want from me?"

"It's already been paid for," the girl-witch grinned. "You've given me some very valuable information I've been listening for for a very long time."

Touya was getting a VERY bad feeling now, and his expression probably reflected this if the woman's laughing was any indication.

"Don't worry," she laughed. "This was made to go with you for this purpose. Because I was only holding it for you, the price isn't as high. Then again, if you keep acting so stupid, I might feel more inclined to start thinking about charging a holders' fee. Now, do you want to take it or not?"

"You're trying to tell me the whole reason I found this crazy shop is to pick up a gift?" he asked, striding forward to reluctantly accept the package. "That seems a little anti-climactic, don't you think?"

"It would be, if that were the only reason for you being here," she laughed, handing him the bag over the fence. "However, I get the feeling this is more like fore-shadowing for your later experiences at my shop, Kinomoto-kun."

He gave her a blank stare as she held onto the bag a little longer than was strictly needed, giving him a level, searching look.

"Yes," she mused softly. "I think you and I will see a good deal of each other in the future, if I'm not mistaken. Well, be safe."

And before he could ask what she meant, she had vanished back within the depths of the strange house-shop with a flourish of black silk and a slightly drunken maniac-giggle.

So Kinomoto Touya was left to walk home with nothing but a bad feeling and a mysterious bag - it was lighter than he thought it would be, and the paper pushed in easily wherever he pressed against it, leading him to assume the object inside was either tall and skinny or just soft and squishy - that he was supposed to give to his best friend, and more than a few questions. He wasn't sure if refusing to enter the witch's shop was a good choice or a bad one, but nearly none of what she had said made any sense at all.

And then there was this package…

The aura of the item felt normal enough, if not slightly soothing, so he didn't think taking it into his home would be a bad thing. But he didn't just want to give it to Yuki without even knowing what it was, and he wasn't going to open it the front yard of the witch who gave it to him. Then there was the method of his 'payment'…

Everything about what that woman had said on the subject alarmed him, he thought as he turned around and started walking home. Something just wasn't right about it What if he had accidentally said something that put Yukito or Sakura in danger? Or worse, what if this mysterious package was the possible danger?

Settling his jaw firmly and striding forward purposefully, he made up his mind to try not to worry about it till he at least knew what the thing was.

He would open it as soon as he got back to his room.

Well, I hope none of that was too, well, awkward. XD I would actually like to personally thank Letters-Of-Insomnia dearly; You're support has really, really meant a lot to me in posting this, and, well, I can't believe I was empty-headed enough not to say earlier but I really admire your work! I'm a huge fan, and I'm really, truly flattered that you are hopefully entertained by something of my own. I hope I can continue to earn your support in the future! -bow-